budgetsRsexy

Congrats to the winners, but more importantly thank you to everyone who posted a haiku. I loved reading them all!

For those still a little concerned by being out in public or just wanting a quiet night in there are some great puzzles out there. This wooden lion puzzle is made up of colorful pieces where no one is alike and are all cute animal shapes: https://www.amazon.com/Omio-Wooden-Puzzles-Adults-Unique/dp/B0912VG4NR/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=ERZIMEZJF00B&dchild=1&keywords=puzzle&qid=1633393454&sprefix=puzz&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFMTjBLWFhXNkpWV0ImZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA3MDkzOTMyWFpENExWM1RMMTNZJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5MzU3MTUzQkMxTEdBN1JKU0xQJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU= This one of the planet Mars would be super difficult because of the lack of distinct color change and would be good for more advanced puzzlers: https://www.amazon.com/Planet-Jigsaw-Puzzle-Premium-Quality/dp/B08WHXMTP2/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=round+mars+puzzle&qid=1633394058&sr=8-3

Is anyone else having a hard time answering the questions? [emoji15] I don’t know what that says about me, either I’m boring or just fortunate enough to not have many wants/needs right now. Oh no, or maybe it means my inner child is growing up too… NOOOOOO, don’t leave me ten year old me![emoji23]

Too bad they will not match “door buster/lightning deals”. I didn’t catch that exclusion the first time I read through their policy. Thanks for linking to the policy for easy access Brad!

Target did a 50% off puzzles around BF if not on BF roughly 3 years ago. I’m not sure if they’ve done it more recently as I wasn’t really looking for them in the ads.

Does Target exclude certain brands from their price match guarantee policy? Like Lego? I didn’t see anything on their website but figured I should check with the professional shoppers here at Gotta Deal and learn from their personal experiences [emoji16]

I snorted at the article describing the Astro as “the love child between a Roomba and an Echo Show smart display.” As interesting as it is in theory it doesn’t seem that useful, particularly not at the $1k price point.

We only carve pumpkins for Halloween and will do that on Saturday October 30th with some friends. My goal is to get my Christmas tree up the weekend of Black Friday (which will be a huge improvement on 2020 when I got it up on Christmas Eve, to say I was struggling to get in the holiday spirit last year would be an understatement). If I get more than the tree up then that’s great but I’ll be happy if I can just manage the tree that weekend.

It’s really upsetting that Walmart is doing this. I suspect that the people that needed the layaway feature most will be the ones that don’t have good enough credit to get a loan or will be charged the worst interest rate. The idea of people who are already struggling getting hit with a 30% interest rate makes me sick to my stomach.

Not the most appropriate, but very in line with my feelings after having to miss out on BF last year due to the pandemic: I’m going shopping Vaccinated now and masked Go suck it covid

That’s great news, thanks so much for letting me know!

I mean in an ideal world (with unlimited funds and vacation time) I would agree with the vacation idea others have brought up. In reality the only thing I’m really hoping for is snagging the cheap deal that Walmart puts out every year on a large Lego Classic set, and selfishly enough it would be for me. We don’t do much in the way of presents anymore so Black Friday is a time for me to treat myself.

Does anyone know if kohl’s coupons will work on the Hallmark ornaments? I didn’t see Hallmark on their online list if exclusions but the list was so extensive that I easily could have missed it. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ads, crazy, chaos, rush, lines and tradition. If my dad was on here he would definitely add “coffee” to my list as he can’t handle the early hours without it.

Duh, I completely forgot to count my GD secret Santa! So 1 more person to shop for needs to be added to my list.

Thank you for the advice on the best wishes phrasing for Yom Kippur. I knew not to say “happy” but didn’t know what to replace it with. The new knowledge was used with several coworkers and a friend and they were all pleasantly surprised by me using a correct reference. Appreciate the wonderful insight.

I hadn’t even thought about that being an issue. Here I was not too concerned about toy shortages as I will only have 1 kid gift to shop for and then BAM, you took away my sense of security. I’ll have to pick up the canned pumpkin, vanilla extract and other non-perishable items now while I’m sure they are available. I’ll start thinking about the turkey early November to avoid issues on the other items (I have a small freezer so will have to make room and plan my meals around losing the freezer space to the turkey).

Yay! Super excited to see this post. Guess I had better set aside some time to answer the questions.

We alternate which family we spend Christmas with each year. If it is my family then 5 adults and 1 dog (who you spend $5 or less on each, it’s a fun challenge and has made for some good laughs) and 1 child (I’m guessing we will be in the $50 range). If it is my husband’s family then we do children and pets, so 1 kid ($50), 3 cats and 4 dogs. This year we hope to make it down to see my husband’s family but we will have to see how things go with travel and covid. I’ve been buying stuff on great sales for everyone so the only person I still have to shop for is the child, and we will do that once we know if we can travel or not to know which kid we need to shop for. Fortunately all the adult and pet gifts can be kept until next year if we don’t see a particular side of the family this year.

Black Friday has become more of a time to shop for household items or things for myself over the years rather than gifts. Unless the lego set I really want goes on a steep discount I’m hoping to keep my spending on myself under $30 this year which would be an all time low. Normally I allow myself up to $100 before I would feel guilty. Because of covid I’m certain I will go into very few brick and mortar stores which will significantly reduce my impulse purchases.

Great tips on making calendar reminders and to take the leap earlier since there might not be a chance later.Is there somewhere I can see or access the sale ads from earlier in November? I could only find the actual Black Friday ads but none of the ones from before the big day. I found the threads but the links didn’t take me anywhere.

Honestly I gave up on doing anything besides my credit card 2% cash back rewards, unless you count saving up lego VIP points. I tried doing swag bucks but I just couldn’t stick with it enough to make it worth my while, though I have some friends who swear by it.

In no particular order, my favorite holiday movies are: Muppet Christmas Carol White Christmas Arthur Christmas Miracle on 34th Street (original) Home Alone Although this is a tv show, I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original animated tv special). It’s just not Christmas until I see it.

I feel like this year might be very similar to last year with the delta variant being an issue. I didn’t participate in Black Friday last year or really pay attention to any of the spread out sales when companies tried to adjust for covid. Any recommendations on how to be prepared for this year? I feel uninformed and completely unprepared for BF this year.

Hey everyone, I’ve been MIA for quite some time. I’ve only just starting to come back out of hiding so to speak and I’ve been trying to catch up on everyone’s stories here on the forum. It seems like everyone has had quite a roller coaster of a year. To those of you that have had new family members and new houses, congratulations. To those who have struggled with health (either physical or mental) or jobs, my heart goes out to you. For me, covid was a huge source of a lot of work stress and long hours. There were times where I didn’t know if my employer company was going to survive and if I’d have a job in a week. Then there was the stress of me being very high risk and with that the isolation in order to stay safe and hopefully healthy. Like everyone else I tried to adapt but I wasn’t able to manage under the stress terribly well. I got very depressed. I became introverted. I couldn’t even get into the holiday spirit and only managed to get my tree up on Christmas Eve. My depression got worse and led to insomnia and then over eating. I regained all the weight that I had worked so hard to lose which just made the depression worse. Then on my birthday in March we had to put our dog of almost 13 years down due to nasal cancer (it was very sudden and unexpected). Im vaccinated now (since April) and my job has finally started to get back to normal. Im currently working hard on trying to reconnect with people and get back into better eating habits, both of which should help my mental health. Eventually I will work on getting back into an exercise routine and doing more outings that i still feel are safe. I feel like things are heading in the right direction and that I’ve got a better handle on things. So that’s what has been going on in my life since I last posted. I’m glad to see you all are still on here. I just wanted to say hi and let you know that I’ve missed the community here. I look forward to being more active on here and keeping up with all the fun.